As a good old Russian saying goes, все болезни – от нервов (all illnesses are from stress). Actually, that’s only the first, the most-often quoted, half of the saying. Some say that yoga and meditation help deal with the daily stress. But a healthy dose of Russian can do the same as long as you don’t get all stressed out about grammar.

We all have нервы (nerves). But only a few of us are fortunate to have железные нервы (nerves of iron). The rest of us tend to психовать (freak out) in a stressful situation. Some stresses are so bad, we end up на грани нервного срыва (turning into a nervous wreck; lit: on the tip of a nervous breakdown). And as you know, нервные клетки не восстанавливаются (nerve cells don’t regenerate).

Some days are worse than others. If I have an important meeting, I start нервничать (feel nervous) the night before. And once you разнервничаться (get worked up), your body starts to react in all sorts of interesting ways. For example, I act as if I just drank ten shots of espresso, including нервная дрожь (nervous shaking) and a feeling of сидеть как на иголках (nervous fidgeting; lit: as if sitting on needles).

You might experience a feeling described in Russian language as сосёт под ложечкой. Translated literally, it makes absolutely no sense – “sucks under a little spoon”. If this brought on a laugh, take a moment to enjoy it for as they say минута смеха равна километру бега (a minute of laughing equals to 0.621371 mile of running).

And now back to the little spoon. It’s a spot right under your rib cage, known as solar plexus or the spot where we feel butterflies in the stomach.

While knowing what “ложечка” is won’t get you far in a human anatomy test (should you take one in Russian), it does come in handy if you want to

1) Explain how hungry someone feels

К полудню похмелье прошло и захотелось есть так, что засосало под ложечкой – Hangover went away by noon replaced by gnawing hunger.

2) Explain symptoms to a doctor

Меня тошнит, кружится голова и сосёт под ложечкой – I feel nauseous, dizzy and hungry.

3) Talk about feelings, especially of nostalgia or yearning

От тоски по родине у Штирлица защемило под ложечкой – Von Stirlitz felt so home-sick, his heart ached.

4) Teach a self-defense class

Удары в пах и под ложечку очень эффективны – Punches in the groin and solar plexus are very effective.

5) Stress about things

У меня от волнения аж под ложечкой засосало – I am so nervous, I have butterflies in my stomach.

Anyway, back to нервы. Even if there are no stress-inducing events on your schedule, you might end up surrounded by people who seem to be hell-bent on достать вас (to get at you, to get your goat). They ceaselessly действовать на нервы (stress you out) or нервируют (stress you out). Other things they might try include

• Довести до ручки – Make you fly off the handle
• Довести до белого каления – Make you white-hot (so hot that you glow)
• Довести до инфаркта – Drive you to a heart attack; give you a coronary
• Завести – To wind up
• Играть на нервах – lit: to play on someone’s nerves meaning to tick someone off (compare to играть на гитаре – to play a guitar, играть на скрипке – to play violin, играть на пианино – to play piano)
• Портить нервы – to get on your nerves

Sure, you can ask them не нервируйте меня (do not drive me crazy) or не заводите меня (do not get me wound up), but honestly, how often does this work?!

And so we might spend the entire day на нервах (stressed out). But instead of getting bummed out over it, let’s take it as an opportunity to practice some Russian prefixes:

• нервничать – to stress out, to be nervous as in я так нервничала, что места себе не находила (I was so stressed out, I couldn’t keep still)
• занервничать – to start stressing out as in подруга сказала, что нам надо поговорить и я занервничал (my girlfriend told me we needed to talk and I started stressing out)
• разнервничаться – to get stressed out, to get wound up as in я не поняла, что произошло и разнервничалась (I didn’t understand what was going on and got stressed out)
• перенервничать – to experience stress as in пока его ждала, я очень перенервничала (I felt very stressed while waiting for him)

Of course, if you get stressed out a lot, you might earn a reputation of нервный (high-strung or jumpy), нервозный (high-strung) and even психованный (spastic). So next time someone портит вам последние нервы (gets on your last nerve) relax, take a deep breath, count to 10, and repeat Спокойствие, только спокойствие (Calm, just calm). Remember, нервы – дороже (peace of mind is more important).